Sundanese Feast at Alas Daun Bandung

Last week, we spent several days in Bandung exploring Bandung food spots. Our first stop is a Sundanese restaurant called RM Alas Daun recommended by a friend who grew up in Bandung. Located near Gedung Sate Bandung, the place is easy to find. Like many restaurants in the area, it was a big old house turned into a restaurant. The front area and main house is quite spacious but reserved for the smoking area. So we headed to the back where there’s a joglo-style building that displays everything Alas Daun has to offer, and a seating area that is supposedly non-smoking.

The display is very appealing and we saw lots of woks displaying nearly every Sundanese food we can think of. We do the ordering there with the server writing down our orders and preparing them right there. We started with a kastrol (thick aluminum pot) of nasi liwet (Sundanese savory rice cooked in one pot with addition of lemongrass, galangal, daun salam), then a selection of fish / chicken dishes. There are several sambals (chili sauce) to choose from. As I love spicy sambal, I always choose the ones that seem to be the spiciest. Further down the line, we selected our own lalapan (Sundanese raw vegetable choices like lettuce, kemangi, cucumber, eggplant, celery etc). After that, we chose some dishes, which would be put in small-sized serving woks. We picked stir-fried vegetable dishes papaya flower / cassava leaves / bitter gourd, cumi item (squid cooked in its own ink), jengkol, pete bakar, fried bean curd and some pepes (bean curd/mushrooms/salted fish steamed wrapped in banana leaves) dishes.

Our orders were then brought to our table. As the restaurant’s name suggested, we ate on a piece of banana leaf, preferably by hand. The dishes were delicious, although I would prefer that they warmed the food and rice before serving. I especially like the squid ink dish and stir fried vegetable, plus the chili sauce was really spicy.

Overall it’s a nice place to dine and works quite well to introduce your friends/guests to Sundanese food. Plus the prices are quite affordable, as we spent less than 200K for 4 people. So if you’re in Bandung, just give this place a try.